IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision:-10.09.2025 Darshana Dagar ......Petitioner.

Vs.

State of Haryana & Anr ......Respondents.

CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present:- Mr. Kamal Chaudhary, Advocate for the Petitioner.

Mr. T.P. Singh, Sr. DAG Haryana.

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JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.(ORAL This is a petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. for quashing of the FIR No.755 dated 23.12.2020 registered under Section 174-A IPC at Police Station Mujesar, District Faridabad (Annexure P-3) which was registered consequent to the order dated 05.03.2020 (Annexure P-2) pased by Judicial Magistrate, Ist Class, Faridabad declaring the petitioner as proclaimed offender in a complaint case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 along with all the consequential proceedings arising out of the same.

2. The brief facts of the case are that in discharge of his legal liability, the petitioner/accused issued a cheques for amount of Rs.5,50,000/- & Rs.5,49,699/- both dated 20.10.2018 in favour of the complainant. The said cheques came to be dishonoured. Pursuant thereto, as no payment was made in lieu of the dishonoured cheques, a complaint under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act came to be instituted against the petitioner/accused and he was summoned to face trial. Subsequently, he was declared a proclaimed person vide order dated 05.03.2020 (Annexure P-2).

3. Thereafter, a compromise was effected between the parties and the complainant withdrew the said complaint against accused no.3 & 4 therein vide order dated 06.01.2021 (Annexure P-4). In view of the discharge of the accused/petitioner, the present petition for quashing of the aforesaid FIR No.755 dated 23.12.2020 under Section 174-A IPC P.S. Mujesar, District Faridabad (Annexure P-3) along with all consequential criminal proceedings has been filed.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner/accused submits that he had wrongly been declared a proclaimed person and on learning about the same, the petitioner compromised the matter with the complainant. Thereafter, on 06.01.2021, the complainant in the Trial Court got recorded its statement that complainant did not want to proceed further with the present complaint and wanted to withdraw the same. Based on the said statement, the accused/petitioner was discharged and the complaint qua him was ordered to be dismissed as withdrawn on 06.01.2021 (Annexure P-4).

5. The learned State Counsel has opposed the present petition and has submitted that the FIR has rightly been registered.

6. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the parties and has perused the paper-book.

7. From the above-said facts and circumstances, it is apparent that the present FIR was registered in view of the fact that the petitioner was declared as a proclaimed person in the proceeding under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The impugned complaint itself has been withdrawn. 8. A co-ordinate Bench of this Court in CRM-M-43813-2018 titled as “Baldev Chand Bansal vs. State of Haryana and another”, decided on 29.01.2019 has held as under:-

“Prayer in this petition is for quashing of FIR No.64 dated 15.02.2017 filed under Section 174-A of the Indian Penal Code registered at Police Station Sector-5, Panchkula and all other subsequent proceedings arising thereof as well as order dated 24.10.2016 passed by the trial Court vide which a direction was issued to register the aforesaid FIR.

xxx xxx xxx Learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon the decisions rendered by this Court in “ Vikas Sharma vs. Gurpreet Singh Kohli and another (supra), 2017, (3) L.A.R.584, Microqual Techno Limited and others Vs. State of Haryana and another, 2015 (32) RCR (Crl.) 790 and “Rajneesh Khanna Vs. State of Haryana and another” 2017(3) L.A.R. 555 wherein in an identical circumstance, this Court has held that since the main petition filed under Section 138 of the Act stands withdrawn in view of an amicable settlement between the parties, therefore